Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

The problem was child care and the solution did not deal with that for many people. The vouched system to which the Minister referred would at least have been for the cost of child care. People within the home who are caring for their children would still have been able to avail of it and would like to have been able to avail of it, so the vouched system would have worked for everyone. Most people would still like the opportunity, be it only to go out to meet other people and to socialise or to attend a part-time course or whatever else. People would have liked to have been able to avail of that and it would have got over the need to have the money paying for child care in other countries where the costs are negligible compared to what we are paying in Ireland.

The measure was introduced in a rushed fashion even though there were alternatives. The Minister's argument about the age of five and a half is contradictory because she admitted that most children have started school by the age of four and a half so if she really believed in her argument she would probably have changed it to four and a half. The vast majority of children have started school by four and a half and they have certainly started by five. However, I do not ask the Minister to cut it back further.

Mistakes were made when the measure was introduced and that is why the Minister has to make cuts at this point. It may be only 1%, as the Minister indicated, but I am not sure that is the exact figure. An amount of €8 million is meeting the cost of child care abroad. The Minister supplied figures yesterday for fraudulent claims of child benefit and this issue is linked because there are fraudulent claims in regard to this payment also and that is costing the taxpayer on the double. That issue needs to be addressed.

See this speech in context